Cipher Mining (NASDAQ: CIFR) appointed Lee Bratcher as head of policy and government affairs and Drew Armstrong as head of strategic initiatives on Tuesday.
The personnel moves follow the recent acquisition of a development site in Ohio as the firm expands its infrastructure.
Bratcher joins Cipher after serving as president and founder of the Texas Blockchain Council. The industry group represents over 100 member companies involved in bitcoin mining and crypto more broadly.
Bratcher worked with regulators to advance legislation during the 87th and 88th Texas legislative sessions, and now he will lead Cipher’s energy policy strategy and manage its relationship with ERCOT.
Armstrong joins as head of strategic initiatives, having previously served as president, chief operating officer, and chairman of Cathedra Bitcoin.
Before Cathedra, Armstrong worked as a founding member of the bitcoin mining team at Galaxy Digital. Armstrong will lead projects to drive growth as Cipher expands into the AI and high-performance computing (HPC) sector.
The leadership appointments arrive two weeks after Cipher purchased a 195-acre site in Ohio on December 23 dubbed project Ulysses.
The Ulysses site offers 200 megawatts of capacity, with Cipher planning to develop the site for industrial-scale data centers for AI and HPC application.
